FamilySearch opens access to Ancestry, MyHeritage and findmypast to all members

The general membership of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints began receiving invitations to join Ancestry.com, MyHeritage.com and findmypast.com using their LDS.org Account. I do not know how far this invitation is going out around the world, but it will be sent to all the members eventually. The invitations are being sent by email. The notice states as follows:

We’re excited to announce that Latter-day Saint users of FamilySearch.org can now receive personal access to Ancestry.com, findmypast, and MyHeritage at no cost! 

Access to these commercial family history websites, used in tandem with enhanced FamilySearch tools, will open new doors of discovery, elevate your ability to provide temple blessings to ancestors, and increase the joy that comes from connecting generations. 

Starting today, you can sign up for personal accounts with all three sites and use the features of each in searching for ancestors. In the future, you will be able to connect data between your FamilySearch Family Tree and the online trees of each of these websites. In addition, you will be able to submit names for temple ordinances starting with each of these websites. More information concerning online tree integration and temple submissions will be available by the end of 2014.

I am afraid, as has already happened, that many members will either ignore the invitation or throw it in the trash. I am also sure that using some or all of these programs will be a new experience for a huge number of members since all three of these websites are available to the general public only as subscription sites. Here are a few suggestions from the experiences we have had already with signing people into the programs;

• Do not ignore the emails. They are personal to the recipient and cannot be forwarded to other family members or friends. If you try to do this, the links will not work.
• We have not gotten any instructions about how to replace the email invitation if it is lost, although I have received two such invitations so far.
• Go ahead and sign up for all three of the programs, even if you do not think you will use them right now. You may be surprised at how helpful all three can be in the future.
• I know that many of the Family History Centers will be gearing up to teach classes on all three of these programs. Meanwhile each of the programs have help centers and a great deal of support. See my post entitled, "Online help for findmypast.com, Ancestry.com and MyHeritage.com."
• If you already have a subscription to one or more of these websites, I suggest following the instructions very carefully. You will see that there is a provision for an existing account. This includes even a trial account or inactive account. If you have or have had an account, you can convert that account to the free LDS account based subscription.

You should seriously consider putting your family tree on all three programs. You will find that they work best when you have a family tree uploaded or entered into each program.

I will certainly be writing more on this subject. For now, if you have any questions, feel free to address them to me in the comments to this, or any other post.